Recruedos de San Miguel

Michoacán

This past week we were invited to share a trip to Michoacán with our friend and landlady, Maria Luisa, and her daughter, Monika, and grandson, Gonzalo.  What a fun adventure.  It was so much exploring a new part of Mexico while getting to know them better.

Morelia is the capital of the State of Michoacán.  It is a lovely colonial city, once known as Valladolid, it was renamed in honor of the Mexican Independence leader, Jose Morelos. The city is centered around the magnificent baroque cathedral and adjacent park. A treasure for residents and visitors alike. In the spring time, the old Jacaranda trees add vibrant color as well as shade. Ice cream vendors and bucksters mingle with the crowds.

Another of the city's treasures is the Museum of Michoacán History, where we spent a delightful couple of hours learning about Michoacán and its people, not always a happy story.

On another day we visited the small city of Uruapan, famous for its National Park and the Artesanal Fair that takes place during Semana Santa.

The national park in Uruapan features a lot of water features, making for a tranquil atmosphere and a pleasant visit.

A great way to see Morelia is on the Turi-bus; on our tour, there were not many more than 10 of us--and we were the only ones from the US.  In fact, we saw very few other gringos in Michoacán.

This photo was taken from our terrace on the Friday night before Easter--a full moon and a cloudy sky.

These two photos show some scenes from one of the processions during Semana Santa, Holy Week.

San Miguel de Allende, Once Again

We have been in San Miguel de Allende for the last couple of months, arriving on February 1st. Several years ago we stumbled upon a nice little apartment in the heart of the city, for a very reasonable price.  

Jardin (main square) & Parroquia 

The landlady, a charming Mexican woman, Maria Louisa, for some reason seems to like us and has sais that she will only rent to us--that makes coming back to San Miguel so very easy. 

View of our street, Mesones, at sunset

View from our balcony of the nearby San Francisco Church

What can possibly keep one coming back to the same place, year after year  Besides a nice climate, a moderate cost of living, and the lovely Mexican people and culture, there is just so much to see and do.

This time of year, there are a lot of long term visitors from Canada and the US.  Films, plays, and music events are constantly being offered at local restaurants, theaters and the Biblioteca (a library founded more than 50 years ago by expats to provide community for extranjeros and scholarships for local youth). 

The Biblioteca puts out a weekly bi-lingual newspaper called "La Atención" which lists many acitivities going on around town. We spend Fridays, when the paper is published, going thru the calendar of events planning our week ahead.  Often there are conflicting things to do and see, so we have to make a choice.

Larry continues with his daily, one hour Spanish conversation class and has since last year taken up Duplicate Bridge--Sue calls it obsession.

Sue goes to Urban Sketchers, a group that meets at various places throughout the city once a week to draw and encourage others to draw and recently she took a watercolor class that she really enjoyed. The photo below shows her first watercolor done in the class.

We have made friends with people who have chosen to live here full time and with a number of people who come back every year like us. 

One group we have enjoyed getting involved with is the Audubon de Mexico which offers weekly and monthly bird walks that sometimes takes us to the near countryside. The pictures below are from a bird walk along the Laja River, not far from the city.

As Easter approaches, there are many processions in San Miguel, especially on Palm Sunday and Good Friday.  Many, many people participate, some in costume and several groups carrying huge pallets covered in gorgeous flowers beneath statues of the Holy Family.